The E-Sylum: Volume 5, Number 10, March 3, 2002, Article 4
ANOTHER UNDERSEA COIN TREASURE?
A report last week indicates that another undersea coin
treasure may have been discovered. From a February
24, 2002 article in the New York Times states:
"In 1694, as England and its allies battled French
expansionism for a fifth year, H.M.S. Sussex led
a large fleet into the Mediterranean to prosecute
the war. It also had a secret mission, documents
show. The flagship, a new British warship of 80
guns and 500 men, appears to have carried a small
fortune in treasure to buy the loyalty of the Duke of
Savoy, a shaky ally.
But a violent storm hit the flotilla near the Strait of
Gibraltar and the Sussex went down. All but two
men died. The treasure ? apparently gold and
silver coins in theory worth up to $4 billion today ?
was never recovered.
Now, three centuries later, a team of entrepreneurs and
archaeologists working with the British government says
it has probably discovered the Sussex in the depths of
the Mediterranean. A half mile down, the team's robot
has examined a large mound rich in cannons, anchors
and solidified masses of artifacts, and its mechanical arm
has gingerly lifted a few to the surface.
The identification of the tantalizing heap is not final, but
the circumstantial evidence is strong. When asked
about the wreck, the British Defense Ministry said in a
statement that the recovered artifacts "lead us to
believe that those items came from a British sovereign
vessel, most probably the wreck of H.M.S. Sussex."
Here are links to the original article, and web pages of
interest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/24/international/europe/24SHIP.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,658149,00.htmlhttp://shipwreck.net/